CHICAGO, Dec. 9 (UPI) — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel apologized Wednesday for the circumstances surrounding the shooting death of Laquan McDonald, a black teen shot 16 times by a white police officer on a city street.
Emanuel said local residents, police and other officials “need a painful and honest reckoning in what went wrong” in McDonald’s death in 2014, including that it took some 13 months to release a police dashboard camera video showing former officer Jason Van Dyke shooting the 17-year-old. Van Dyke, 37, has been charged with first-degree murder.
“I own it,” the mayor said. “I take responsibility for what happened, because it happened on my watch.”
Emanuel’s 40-minute speech to the City Council acknowledged the ongoing problems the city faces, including the need for police to build a trusting relationship with the area’s young black residents.
Emanuel’s speech comes a day after newly released video shows Chicago police officers using a Taser on a man who later died in the hospital. An autopsy showed the man had severe trauma to his head and body.
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